- Removal of
service fee will by default affect the earnings of servers, waiters, kitchen staff and cleaners. - The national average salary of a waiter is ₹16,400 per month in India, according to the job rating platform Glassdoor.
- Depending on the level of the employee, servers earn between 5,000 and ₹20,000 on these service charges and tips, said Pradeep Shetty, a senior executive at hotel and restaurant associations in India.
The Indian government’s decision to throw restaurant service charges out the window will ease restaurant bills. However, it is not good news for the workers of an industry who live on tips to make up for their low income.
Servers, waiters, kitchen staff and cleaners are directly affected by the decision not to pay a 10% service charge.
“Service charges are charges collected on behalf of the staff, which includes everyone from the waiters to the staff who work in the kitchen and who have directly and indirectly served a consumer,” Gurbaxash Singh Kohli, vice president of Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), said.
A service charge is an amount added to your bill at a restaurant to pay for the work of the person who comes and serves. A smaller percentage – 30% – of this amount can also be deducted in case of breakage by the servers of the restaurants and hotels.
The average salary of a waiter is ₹16,400 per month
According to the job rating platform Glassdoor, the national average salary of a waiter is ₹16,400 per month in India. Salary estimates are based on 73 salaries submitted anonymously to Glassdoor by waiter employees. Data from other publications such as
Jobted†
Talentand
Salary expert is also in the comparable range, if not lower.
Tips are an essential part of their salary
“Depending on the employee’s grade, they earn between 5,000 and ₹20,000 from these service charges and tips. It’s more than their salary,” Pradeep Shetty, Joint Honorary Secretary at FHRAI and senior vice president at Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), told https://londonbusinessblog.com/ India.
In other countries – such as the US, UK, Canada and more – restaurant workers work on minimum wages, but tips make up a significant portion of their take-home pay.
Now that the service charges are out of the picture, it’s going to take home for the people who work on the ground floor of the hospitality industry.
The only thing that would bring some relief to the people who work in the industry is if the customers choose to pay a 10% service charge or get into a habit of tipping like in most western countries.
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